


aftershock

by todoroki_kuns



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Season/Series 08, Team Voltron Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-01
Updated: 2019-01-01
Packaged: 2019-10-01 18:06:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 563
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17248943
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/todoroki_kuns/pseuds/todoroki_kuns
Summary: There's no such thing as a happy ending for children of war.





	aftershock

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this because there's still so much more story left to be told. Sure, we saw all of them happy together at the end, but there's no way any of them escaped unscathed. Nooo way.

For Keith, it comes in the form of war flashbacks.

Any sound that reaches his ears is an inherent threat, someone coming to harm him and those he cherishes. Sometimes, he collapses to the ground in the supermarket in tears as a flashback overwhelms him.

He watches as people he cares for are massacred before his eyes. Lance unconscious and Pidge's hand slipping from his grasp. Populations completely decimated as he observes, powerless to help. That's why he does what he does.

It isn't until someone taps on his shoulder to ask if he's okay that he snaps back to reality. Usually, he hurries out, abandoning his cart of items in the aisle. It's difficult to go out in public.

* * *

 

For Lance, it comes in the form of nightmares.

He wakes screaming in a cold sweat, hands clutching at the air for his fellow paladins. In his dreams, he's floating through space, alone. His oxygen is low, and there's no one there to help him. The voice in his mind is taunting him, whispering sinful thoughts about how little he means to everyone. In the distance, a planet explodes. He can still hear the cries of the lives they couldn't protect.

Even Keith's passionate embrace isn't enough to pull him out of the disturbing mindset. His beloved strokes his hair until he falls back asleep, and into another vision of torture and mistakes.

* * *

 

For Pidge, it comes in the form of numbness.

The only way to stay sane is to avoid emotions at all, and Pidge plans to keep it that way. She loses herself in her work and never answers her phone. Even when the screen flashes with Hunk's name, she sends it to voicemail. Their faces hurt too much; they remind her of the awful times they went through.

The universe can be fixed, sure, but her mind can't. It doesn't replace what she saw, or what she did, to ensure the existence of everything was preserved. She was only fourteen when she was thrust into war.

She rarely smiles anymore, even for Matt.

* * *

 

For Hunk, it comes in the form of erasure.

If one were to ask him about the war, he wouldn't be able to respond. He remembers he was part of Voltron, of course, but not much else. The trauma of watching his friends die and forcing himself into terrifying positions was enough to obstruct memories.

His cooking is his life, and as far as he's concerned, that's all he needs. The cosmos are safe, and he can't take credit for that. It's all nothingness, and the attachments he formed on those journeys have dissipated.

They went to school together, that's all.

* * *

For Shiro, it comes in the form of restlessness.

He tosses and turns in his bed at night, the robot arm making it difficult to get comfortable. When he closes his eyes, he's brought back to his days of torture. He can almost feel the agony ripping through his body as he begs for his life.

Other times, it's the void. Everything is endless and barren, and he's struggling to maintain his sanity. His friends appear before him, and they can't hear him, they can't see him. He wants to help them, but here, he's useless.

Useless. That's what someone like Shiro is. At least, that's what he tells himself at night.

He'd rather stay awake.


End file.
